When you have a player like Henin on the ropes you have to finish her right then or pay the consequences. Lena played an awful service game at 5-3 and then in the next game, made a horrible backhand error that would have put her ahead 40-15 and given 2 set points. Once that window of opportunity passed by, Justine began to play much better. Then in the second set, with Justine struggling and doing her best to let Lena back into the match, Lena once again missed an unpressured backhand on a game point that would have given her a 5-4 lead. And of course Henin capitalized when Lena faltered, closing out the match on serve. Lena's big forehand was nowhere to be seen today. Except for the huge winner she hit to save a match point in the final game, i can't remember her hurting Henin with the forehand at all. Tough to beat a top player when you're not doing anything with your best shot. Justine played very well in certain important moments but i really felt that Lena had every chance to win this match.

I think that lenaD miss her chances in the 1st set when she could win it,
In the 2nd, Justine played very well, even if elena came back from 1-4 down to 4-4, Justine has just played well in the 2 next games !!

Lena seems to play better when she's down than she does with a lead. Either way she seems to prefer making it hard on herself.

It's really unfortunate that she lost this match, especially without winning a set, because she had the first set all but won. Also, this was a good chance to beat Justine before she recovers all facets of her game. Beating her will only get tougher from now on.

USO 2004 final, up a break so many times in the 2nd set, if only she could have held serve a little more.

Moscow 2004, serves for the first set against Nastya and doesn't win another game.

AO 2005 7-6 4-0 against Patty and still loses.

And probably many more.

However on the flip side, matches against Amelie at RG and USO and Jen at USO show that Elena can take her chances and go for her shots.

She needs to work on a little more consistent aggression against the very top players.

Yeah as long as it's not a title match.

Pretty lame loss yesterday..Do you think she says to herself, hey I got a lead, but w/my weak serve(which i don't think let her down yesterday) I can't possibly close this out.

Confidence is the diff. between a champion and an also ran.

"Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated" - George Bernard Shaw

"And for the best of the teen-agers who followed her, and who occasionally referred to her as over the hill, Graf had a ready answer: against top-ranked Martina Hingis, Graf wound up 7-2. Graf's stirring 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 throttling of Hingis at the French Open final this June was perhaps the most emphatic parting shot the game has ever seen. "

Elena just doesn't dominate like she should. She even plays long 3-setters against non-entities. She needs to keep the belief that she is going to dominate the whole match. As soon as she is ahead in a big match, she seems to lose it.

Sabine Lisicki,Maria Sharapova,Elena Dementieva,

Victoria Azarenka,Dinara Safina,Maria Kirilenko

Nadia Petrova,Samantha Stosur, Ana Ivanovic.

0026..Eternal follower of the Golden Girl .... Official Political Advisor to the Maria Mafia.